Tip of My Iceberg

When we were in college, John and I would attend concerts fairly frequently. Some are really great in person; others sound better on an album.

But one of the items on my bucket list was to see the band Chicago in concert. It helps that these are hometown boys who worked hard at making a go of their sound. Back in the day of guitars and drums only, they added brass to their music, which took it to a whole other level of extraordinary. Trumpets, trombones, and saxophones add a richness to music that can’t be found with an electric guitar.

They began under the name Chicago Transit Authority, until the people behind the actual CTA had a problem with that, so they shortened the name to Chicago. Begun in 1967 (yes, they’ve been around almost sixty years), three of the original members, the three brass players, are still in the lineup. People have come and gone over the years, but the sound is still unique to the band.

Our kids gave us tickets to see them in concert, so we drove up to Savannah, Georgia, and had the time of our lives. The crowd was varied; old and young alike were there, dancing in the aisles, singing along with each tune. I was shameless in my singing, and I don’t sing. But pelting out songs I grew up with, laughing with the crowd, and enjoying watching not just the band but the people made it an incredible experience.

Having an adventure doing something you’ve wanted to do for a long while is an exceptional experience. Having something happen that you’ve waited a millennium to happen is an entirely different incident.

In the Garden of Eden, God had created an incredible paradise for Adam and Eve, created out of love for the height of His creation. But real love has to be offered freely and received without strings attached. God gave them the entire contents of the garden to eat from, except for one tree. “And the LORD God commanded the man, ‘You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.’” Genesis 2:16-17.

Love given without responsibility isn’t love; it’s control. God gave the man one rule to follow, and it wasn’t restrictive. There was one tree from which he couldn’t eat.

When God created the woman, she hadn’t heard first-hand this command. Satan tempted her. with being like God, so she ate the fruit from the tree that He’d forbidden. They were evicted from the Garden, and sin and death entered the world.

But God gave them a bucket-list promise. A Messiah who would save His people from their sin. “And I will cause hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will strike your head, and you will strike His heel.” Genesis 3:15. God made a promise when the problem erupted; He’d provide a Savior to reconnect us with the Lord.

Throughout the Old Testament, prophecies of the coming Messiah were made in almost every generation. When Jesus was on earth, He fulfilled over 350 of those prophecies in His lifetime here. He is the fulfillment of the ultimate bucket list, the promise of the restoration between God and us.

My bucket list is filled with my dreams, but they’re rather short-lived. God’s bucket list fulfillment is eternal. He offers the best for each of us forever.

That’s gratification that can’t get any better.